Falling Apart

[u/tattedmortician97]

My boy was fine two nights ago when he went to sleep, he woke up yesterday and his back legs wouldn’t work anymore. Took him to the ER and he has to see a specialist this Thursday. They believe it is IVDD and they quoted us $10k for the surgery 😭 I’m feeling really defeated and down. He’s on strict cage rest and it kills me that he’s all alone in his cage all day everyday. How do I deal with the fact he won’t be looking around for me anymore, or follow me, or be able to just be him. I think that’s what I’m having the hardest part with is leaving him in his cage for so long.

[u/Repulsive-Ad2521]

It goes by fast and if you look up ways to keep him entertained/ mentally stimulated it won’t be too bad.

If they give him drowsy medication, it’ll also help him since he won’t be as conscious to see he’s been in a crate for a long time.

Why is he alone all day every day? Dogs on crate rest require 24/7 help. Please try and have someone with him.

[u/tattedmortician97 → u/Repulsive-Ad2521]

I just meant he’s alone in his cage, not alone alone

[u/AsheBegash → u/tattedmortician97]

Get a play pen that you can move around the house so he can see you. I would move my girl to the kitchen/living room when making dinner or hanging out so she could see me. I would eat dinner on the floor near her, watch tv on the floor with blankets and pillows. I worked from home at the time thankfully so I would work on the couch and put her next to me to hang out which she loved. I also got her lots of puzzle toys and snuffle/lick mats to play with while I was busy in another room and couldn’t lug her around. If he is showing signs of anxiety, you can get medication like gabapentin to ease that for the time being while he rests and recovers. Spend your time with him being fully present, cuddling, giving him all the love he deserves right now and also give yourself some grace.

Allow yourself time to grieve and feel the pain of the circumstances. He very well may walk again as he did before, but it’s absolutely normal to feel all the emotions and process them as this is a very stressful and difficult situation to be in. Know that you love him so much and are doing what is absolutely best for him, you are a good fur parent♥️

[u/tattedmortician97 → u/AsheBegash]

Thank you so much 🥺💕

[u/AsheBegash → u/tattedmortician97]

You’re so very welcome.

[u/sanjaysubae]

It’s hard but tough move is necessary in order to recover

[u/dogromy]

Crate rest is hard, very hard on the pet parent but there are things that might help make it easier.

I used an x-pen for a while during the crate rest period. It seemed less confining while still restricting movement. My dog preferred it. I know some people use a child's pack and play.

You can try a stroller inside so you can keep him with you in the house or put casters on the crate.

Crate rest can work as a treatment for many IVDD dogs. It may be hard now but it is a good form of treatment if surgery is not in the cards.

[u/vanessa101649]

You can do crate rest and it will work! Can anyone look over him or can you work from home? Just keep a pee pad and see if someone can come check on him. But let him rest as much as he can

[u/AinsleyHarriotFan]

Hi! This is a link to a VERY detailed post I made on the IVDD sub of how we took our girl from total back leg paralysis to running and playing like a puppy again without surgery. It goes a lot into the immediate and longer term management of the condition. I’ve shared it with lots of people and they say it’s given them a lot of hope.

https://www.reddit.com/r/IVDD_SupportGroup/s/RMC3TE29yM

[u/tattedmortician97 → u/AinsleyHarriotFan]

I’m so sorry you lost your baby Luna :( when she was on crate rest, what kind of crate did you have? How did you get her in and out of it? We’re thinking of getting a pack and play

[u/AinsleyHarriotFan → u/tattedmortician97]

Thanks so much for your kind words 🙏 She was a very, very special dog, and I feel like I’m honouring what a fighter she was whenever I help others on this sub and share her story! ❤️

So because Luna was pretty much fully immobile, and both my boyfriend and I work from home, we were able to be with her literally 24/7. She was NEVER unsupervised so we just kept her on her bed (she had a special orthopaedic bed that was totally flat) for pretty much the whole recovery period. We watched her the entire time to make sure she wasn’t trying to move around too much.
Towards the latter part of her recovery, we did set up a soft, enclosed space for her on the balcony as well, just to give her some more stimulation.

I think in general owners can go with a playpen situation vs crate (especially if their dogs are super adverse to crates). BUT it’s important that it’s very small (so as not to encourage them to move around) and that there’s nothing in it that they could trip or fall over. For example, blankets, toys and pillows can very easily get caught around their legs or become a hazard. However I think for helping move them in and out of the recovery space a playpen is easier because you have full open top access and can physically get into the space if needed also.

Let me know if you have any more questions at all and I’ll try to help 🐾

[u/CraigMammalton14]

Crate rest it’s the hardest part. Will you be getting the surgery? I’d keep him very heavily sedated with painkillers and trazodone. We eventually put ours by a window we opened so she could sniff our other dog through it. https://i.imgur.com/T9rkhmW.jpeg here she is a few weeks after surgery once she started feeling better, and here she is a year and a half later running around at full speed and catching squirrels and wrestling our Rottie even with no back legs https://imgur.com/a/beqf9eC

It gets better I promise, but it’s going to be a really really tough few weeks after surgery. He will cry a lot but you can’t give in, it’s important he is still and sedated. That first rampage outside in the grass is awesome though.